BAGHDAD, Iraq -Two car bombs ripped through a crowded street in front of the Interior Ministry in central Baghdad yesterday, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen others. Al-Qaida in Iraq said it carried out the attack, the bloodiest in more than a month.
In a statement posted on the Internet, the group, headed by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the attack targeted a patrol outside the office of Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib, who is in charge of the nation's police. The claim could not be independently verified.
Al-Naqib was in his office at the time of the explosions, but was not injured. He came out afterward to examine the scorched road and blackened rubble left by the blast. The ministry building, built by Saddam Hussein's government to survive major attacks, was not damaged.
Meanwhile, a new video broadcast on al-Jazeera television showed a man who identified himself as a Pakistani diplomat kidnapped last weekend in Baghdad. The Arab satellite station said the man, who was wearing a white skull cap, urged the Pakistani government and international community to intervene and secure his release.
The station said the kidnappers, identified as being from the previously unknown group Amuriya Brigade, made no demands for his release.
Malik Mohammed Javed, deputy charge d'affaires at the Pakistani mission in Baghdad, was last seen Saturday leaving his home for prayers at a mosque. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry earlier said the Omar bin Khattab Group claimed responsibility and demanded money for his release. The video broadcast yesterday couldn't be independently verified and the discrepancy between the groups' names couldn't be explained.
The death toll from yesterday's car bombs was the highest from an explosion since March 10, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite mosque during a funeral, killing 47 people.
Panicked students from a nearby secondary school and university gathered in the street, some weeping.
We are terrified
said Hoda Raheem Hadi, a 22-year-old computer science student. Why is this happening?
After clearing the area, U.S. forces set off a third car bomb that apparently failed to explode earlier. Nobody was injured in that blast.
Interior Ministry Official Capt. Ahmed Ismael said the first two blasts killed 18 people and wounded 36.
It was the latest attack claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq. On Tuesday, the group claimed responsibility for bloody clashes with U.S. soldiers in the Syrian border town of Qaim, and on Wednesday it claimed an attack on a U.S. convoy that killed five Iraqis and wounded four U.S. contract workers on Baghdad's airport road. None of the claims could be verified. 17
Archives
The Associated Press
